In order to increase driver comfort during a car trip, many automobiles are provided with electrical heating devices, in particular with seat heaters. The seat heater is normally formed by heating resistors in the seat area and/or the backrest area of the vehicle seal that comprise a heating conductor strand and form a heating field therefrom. The functionality as well as the reliability of the seat heater are essential quality features here. In order to ensure these quality features, and in order to prevent excessively high heating temperatures, a temperature acquisition is needed. For this purpose, it is possible to install a temperature sensor within two parallel heating conductor strands of the heating field. The temperature sensor is in direct connection with the seat heater control apparatus, which evaluates the temperature measurement values and adapts the heat of the seat heater in a given case. In order to ensure the correctness as well as the quality of the temperature sensor, it is important to put the temperature sensor in the correct position. If the temperature sensor is positioned incorrectly, incorrect temperature measurement values are calculated by the seat heater control apparatus due to the recorded measurement values, which can lead to an undesirable setting of the seat heater temperature. If the temperature is set too high, the seat comfort is decreased due to the heat generated on the vehicle seat. As an additional consequence, overheating of the seat heater can occur, which can trigger dangerous situations such as injury to the driver or ignition of a fire. If an excessively cold temperature of the seat heater is produced, this also leads to reduced driver comfort and in many cases to complaints about the seat heater installation. Moreover, in other application fields of electrical heating devices, the problem of how the temperature can be acquired appropriately within the heating field arises, in order to regulate the heat setting of the heating device.